The Harvest, May-June 2013

Inside The Harvest Canon Craig Loya

The Rev. Craig Loya, the diocese’s canon to the ordinary, has accepted a call to become dean of Trinity Cathedral in Omaha, Neb., starting in September. Page 2

Interfaith Power and Light

The Rev. Sally Bingham, founder of Interfaith Power and Light and a leader in calling for churches to reduce their energy use, spoke in Lawrence on June 4.

Page 3

Life-saving call

Wichitan Jerry Malone credits her alarm company with saving her life when a fire broke out in her house, but she didn’t expect her thank-you to have such a big impact. Page 4

MegaCamp

Two hundred campers and 50 adults gathered for MegaCamp, a week of fun and sharing the Christian faith at Camp Wood, set amid the beauty of Kansas’ Flint Hills. Page 4

Diocesan Convention

Bishop Stacy Sauls will be this year’s keynote speaker at Convention. Deadlines also are coming up for actions to be proposed at the annual event.. Page 6

Feeding the hungry

Food pantries and summer lunch programs across the diocese are responding to the need for help in stretching food budgets of the working poor. Page 6

Kansas to Kenya

The 50 people who took part in three mission teams this summer in Kenya engaged in a lot of ministry projects, including construction of what is believed to be the first safe house for abused women in the country. Page 7

Busy interns

One intern assisted in the youth office this summer, and two campus interns are ready to assist with Episcopal efforts at K.U. and K-State, as well as other campuses across the diocese. Page 9

Deacon award

Deacon Steve Segebrecht was honored by the Association of Episcopal Deacons during a recent meeting with its award for service. He wasn’t there to accept, though — he was serving in Kenya. Page 9

Women bishops in England The Church of England’s General Synod has taken steps that it hopes will lead to the eventual appointment of women as bishops. Page 11

Kansas, three other dioceses form new school for ministry

By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest Bishop Dean Wolfe and the bishops of the dioceses of West Missouri, Western Kansas and Nebraska on July 11 announced an agreement to merge their dioceses’ existing ministry schools into a new school, the Bishop Kemper School for Ministry, which will begin offering classes this fall.

The bishops said in their announcement, “Members of our four dioceses already have been studying together at the school of the Diocese of Kansas, and we have seen firsthand the great benefit of having people engage in rigorous theological education in an environment of collegiality among people from different dioceses. The Bishop Kemper School will continue and enhance those Bishop Jackson opportunities.”

Kemper, the new The Kansas School for Ministry, school’s namesake which has educated dozens of people for ordination and lay ministries in this diocese since 1997, will be one of the educational offerings merged into the new school.

The Bishop Kemper School, which will be headquartered in Topeka, will have its own board of directors, made up of people from all four dioceses, and they quickly will begin the process of establishing the school as a new Kansas non-profit corporation.

The school will be operated jointly by all four dioceses, and each will make yearly financial contributions to its work. The new board will be responsible for overseeing the life of the school, as well as the work of the dean and faculty. The four bishops will serve as ex officio board members.

The continuing vitality and viability of many of our congregations requires that we undertake new and innovative ways of creating leaders for the 21st century. The Bishop Kemper School for Ministry is one of these. — Bishops’ announcement

The Bethany Place property in Topeka where the school will meet and where student accommodations are located will continue to be owned by the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, and the cost of operating the school will be shared by all four dioceses.

Named for first missionary bishop

The school honors Bishop Jackson Kemper, the first Missionary Bishop of the Episcopal Church, who was the organizing bishop when each of the four dioceses was founded in the 19th century.

He also was committed to the value of local theological education for the growth and health of the Episcopal Church in an era of westward expansion, making it fitting, the bishops said, “that this new endeavor bears his name.”

For the past two years, students from the dioceses of Western Kansas and West Missouri have studied with Diocese of Kansas students at the Kansas School for Ministry. They were joined this past year by students from the Diocese of Nebraska.

(Please see School, page 2)

EWARM gets UTO grant for computers United Thank Offering awards $24,360 to refugee agency for resource lab

By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest The Episcopal Wichita Area Refugee Ministry (EWARM) got some exciting and welcome news when it learned in early June that the agency had received a grant from the United thank Offering in the amount of $24,360. The money is earmarked for creation of a computer resource lab.

Shannon Mahan, EWARM’s executive director, said the computers and software the grant will provide will be a big help to new refugees in learning English and in preparing for employment.

The grant will provide for the purchase of 11 computers, as well as printers and specialized software.

The grant was one of 48 awarded by the UTO board. Each diocese can submit one application for consideration.

To date EWARM has provided a new home to 28 people in nine families, all natives of Burma, also known as Myanmar.

They received official refugee status since they are unable to return to their home be-

Submitted photo

First ballpark adventure for EWARM families Some of Wichita’s newest residents — Burmese refugees resettled through the Episcopal Wichita Area Refugee Ministry — got their first taste of America’s Pastime at the June 15 baseball game between the Wichita Wingnuts and the St. Paul Saints. They were accompanied by members of St. John’s, Wichita, who helped explain the game and shared in the festivities of a night at the ballpark. v

cause of religious or political persecution from ongoing violence in that Southeast Asian nation.

Mahan said the new resource lab will augment the English classes offered by the International Rescue Committee of

Wichita which meet at St. John’s Episcopal Church.

The computers also will help the refugees in job readiness. EWARM aids this (Please see EWARM, page 3)

2 • The Harvest • May/June 2013

Canon Craig Loya named dean of Omaha cathedral The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas

Publisher: The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe, Bishop Editor: Melodie Woerman A member of Episcopal News Service and Episcopal Communicators, The Harvest is published six times a year by the Office of Communications of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas: February, April, June, August, October and December.

Stories, letters and photos are welcome. They will be used on a space-available basis and are subject to editing. Send all material (preferably in electronic format or by email) to: Melodie Woerman, editor The Harvest 835 SW Polk St. Topeka, KS 66612-1688 phone: (800) 473-3563 fax: (785) 235-2449 mwoerman@episcopal-ks.org Send address changes to: Receptionist 835 SW Polk St., Topeka, KS 66612-1688 receptionist@episcopal-ks.org Upcoming deadlines: July-August issue: Aug. 10 September-October issue: Oct. 10 Subscription rate: $1.50 annually Third class mailing Permit No. 601, Topeka, Kansas POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Episcopal Diocese of Kansas 835 SW Polk St. Topeka, KS 66612-1688

The Anglican Communion

A global community of 70 million Anglicans in 38 member churches/provinces in more than 160 countries.

Archbishop of Canterbury The Most Reverend and Right Honorable Justin Welby Lambeth Palace, London WE1 7JU, United Kingdom www.anglicancommunion.org Episcopal seat: Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury, England

The Episcopal Church

The Rev. Craig Loya, who has been the diocese’s canon to the ordinary since 2009 and served as campus missioner before that, has accepted a call to become dean of Trinity Cathedral in Omaha, Neb., beginning Sept. 29.

The announcement of Loya’s new position was made by Bishop Dean Wolfe on July 21.

In it the bishop said, “When you call people of great promise and excelPraise for Kansas lence, we give thanks that Loya praised the minthey can be of service to istry that is evident across the wider church. It is the Diocese of Kansas. heartbreaking to let go “Here in Kansas, we of such a good colleague are doing some of the most and friend, and yet we are exciting and important thrilled for Craig, Melissa work being done anywhere and Mari and believe they in the church; I have been will exercise the same so richly blessed to share kind of outstanding minsome part of that. istry in Nebraska that they “I am particularly gratehave here in Kansas.” ful to Bishop Wolfe, who He also noted that the has been an extraordinary move returns Loya closer colleague, a valuable mento family, since he and tor and a good friend. He his wife, Melissa Tubbs and all of my colleagues Loya, both are natives of on the diocesan staff have Nebraska. provided daily inspiration In reflecting on his time through their professional in Kansas Loya said, “The excellence, spiritual wisyears I have spent on the dom, dedication to the diocesan staff have been The Rev. Craig Loya gospel and deep love for filled with grace and joy.

I was a relatively new priest when I arrived in the this diocese.”

Loya said of his time in the diocese, “Every day diocese, and the shape of my priesthood has been largely forged by the joys, sorrows, blessings, of my work here has taught me something more of challenges and just plain hard work that we have how to follow Jesus, and how to become the kind of community he calls us to be. The many things I embraced together.” have learned from the clergy and people of Kansas will greatly inform and enrich my ministry at TrinLoya showed ‘extraordinary gifts’ The bishop praised the work Loya has done in the ity Cathedral in Omaha.” Trinity Cathedral has a two positions he has held in the diocese. He noted congregation of about 400 people.

Loya’s last day in the diocesan office will be that Loya was hired in 2007 for the first campus missioner position as part of “an innovative and creative Aug. 27.

Bishop Wolfe said he is creating an advisory comapproach to diocesanwide campus ministry” and quickly showed he was “a person of extraordinary mittee to assist him in the search for a new canon and anticipates “a number of excellent candidates to gifts.”

Loya, along with the Rev. Susan Terry, who was apply.” He said this transition also offers the opportucalled as a second campus missioner, helped create nity to “rethink how this position can best serve the “a dynamic model for campus ministry that now is office of the bishop and the Diocese of Kansas.” v

School: Presiding bishop will celebrate new entity during October visit to Topeka

A community of 2 million members in 109 dioceses in 16 countries in the Americas and abroad.

(Continued from page 1) The bishops soon saw the need for a school that is owned by all four dioceses, allowing it to expand to continue to meet the needs for locally educated parish leaders, lay and ordained. Creation of the Bishop Kemper School for Ministry was their answer.

Presiding Bishop The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori 815 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10017 (800) 334-7626 www.episcopalchurch.org Episcopal seat: Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.

The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas

A community of about 12,000 members in 46 congregations, two diocesan institutions and one school in eastern Kansas.

Bishop The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe 835 SW Polk Street, Topeka, KS 66612-1688 (785) 235-9255 (800) 473-3563 www.episcopal-ks.org Episcopal seat: Grace Episcopal Cathedral, Topeka

being utilized in other parts of the church,” Bishop Wolfe said.

The bishop said Loya’s outstanding service as campus missioner prompted him to appoint Loya as canon to the ordinary, which as the chief clergy assist to a bishop he called “one of the most difficult positions in the Episcopal Church.”

Bishop Wolfe said almost every parish and priest in the diocese “has benefitted from his good counsel and pastoral care during clergy transitions.”

Innovation is required The seal for the new Bishop Kemper School for Ministry features the nine crosses of the Episcopal shield, an open Bible and stalks of wheat, as well as a cross and the Greek letters alpha and omega, the first and last letters of that alphabet.

In their announcement the bishops wrote, “Our four dioceses, while unique and distinct, share many common traits, including the need to provide quality leadership for small congregations in rural settings. The continuing vitality and viability of many of our congregations requires that we undertake new and innovative ways of creating leaders for the 21st century. The Bishop Kemper School for Ministry is one of these.”

While each diocese’s existing educational programs will be merged into the Bishop Kemper School, the bishops

said the new school “will continue the commitment of those programs to the highest level of preparation for people seeking ordination, lay people engaged in licensed and specialized ministries, lay and clergy continuing education, and general education and enrichment courses for all members of our dioceses.”

The bishops’ announcement also noted that the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, will be in Topeka Oct. 5 and 6 to celebrate the creation of the new joint educational venture.

She also will dedicate the remodeled Bethany Place Conference Center, which provides overnight accommodations for students of the school.

Remodeling of the conference center, which took place in 2012, was paid for from donations to the diocesan Crossroads capital campaign.

More details on the schedule for that visit will be available in advance of her trip. v

May/June 2013 • The Harvest • 3

Environmental leader speaks in Lawrence

By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest The Rev. Sally Bingham, founder of the national organization Interfaith Power and Light, was in Lawrence on June 4 to address the annual meeting of the Kansas affiliate of the group that seeks to help faith communities be better stewards of their energy use.

Bingham, who serves as canon for the environment for the Diocese of California, shared the story of how she became involved in environmental issues, beginning with an invitation in the 1980s to serve on the board of the Environmental Defense Fund. “I learned what humans are doing to the planet,” she said.

But as a lifelong Episcopalian, she was surprised there was no connection between what her church said about caring for creation and what environmental activists were doing.

She said she then took this question to her bishop, her cathedral and to people of other faiths, and none of them said they’d ever heard protection of creation preached from the pulpit.

Her rector suggested she should go to seminary to learn why there was a disconnection between the church’s theology and its actions on this topic.

Since she had never attended college, she had to do that first, entering as a freshman at age 45. She then went to seminary with no intention of being ordained. She graduated in 1994 and began working “to engage people of faith on environmental issues,” she said.

But others quickly pressed her to enter the process toward ordination, and in 1997 she was ordained a priest, a journey that surprised her. She was, she said, “a person with no background in business or leadership skills, no financial background, no previous speaking engagement, and no desire to be a priest.”

In 1998 she helped establish Episcopal Power and Light, which allowed congregations in the San Francisco area to purchase electricity from renewable energy sources. The

faith we have to love what God loves.”

When asked why parishes and parishioners don’t do a better job of addressing environmental changes, she said it was generally a lack of understanding that energy and climate change are real issues. “Once people hear the message of stewardship of creation, most often Episcopalians will say, ‘I’ve never thought about it that way,’” she said.

She noted that saving energy also saves churches money “The minute you become energy efficient you save money,” she said, money that can be used for ministry needs or to go back into green technology to save even more energy.

Beyond that, Bingham said Christians should consider the moral implications of changes taking place in the earth’s climate. “The poor suffer the most and contribute the least to the problem of climate-changing greenhouse gases,” she said.

The poor are hurt the most, she said, because they don’t have the means to cope with the effects. The developing world is seeing an increase in droughts and a struggle to find food and fuel, she said. “And the poor have no place to go.”

And when people run out of trees to burn for fuel, there Photo by Melodie Woerman can be large migrations of people as they search for the Episcopal priest the Rev. Sally Bingham, founder of the means to stay warm and cook their food. environmental advocacy group Interfaith Power and Light, speaks to the annual meeting of the Kansas IPL affiliate June 4 in Lawrence,

name changed in 2000 to California Interfaith Power and Light, reflecting the involvement of other faith groups.

In 2005 it dropped the reference to California, becoming Interfaith Power and Light, as it expanded to 41 local affiliates in 40 states and the District of Columbia. Kansas Interfaith Power and Light is one of those.

Caring for God’s creation

In an interview before her address, Bingham said that caring for creation fulfills the first and greatest commandment to love one’s neighbor. “You don’t pollute your neighbor’s air and water,” she said.

Beyond that, “God loves the creation, and as people of

Cool congregations

One way churches can make an impact is through the Cool Congregation program offered by Kansas IPL. It offers a three-hour training program to encourage congregations and their members to agree to reduce their carbon footprint by 10 percent over the course of a year — what they call a carbon “tithe.”

Recommendations include switching to lower-energy light bulbs, such as compact fluorescents, as well as raising the thermostat in the summer and lowering it in the winter.

These are, according to the program, “simple, low-cost measures that families can implement to immediately put their faith into action and reduce their carbon footprint.”

More information is on the website of Kansas Interfaith Power and Light, http://kansasipl.org. v

EWARM: Refugees quickly are self-sufficient (Continued from page 1) effort by providing a daycare for refugee children while their parents are in class.

Mahan said that since EWARM received its first refugee family in late July 2012, eight families have become financially self-sufficient with adults who are employed.

“They are so motivated,” she said.

Two of them have even purchased a used car, and two other families received cars as gifts.

The ninth family, parents plus their eight-month-old daughter, arrived in Wichita on June 5.

More families on the way

Mahan said she has received word that another 11 families will be arriving in Wichita sometime over the next three to four months.

Sadly, she said she has no sponsors for any of them.

Sponsors pledge $3,000 to help cover the family’s expenses during their first six months and provide volunteers to help refugees become acclimated to American culture.

So far all the sponsors have been from Wichita, but Mahan said she’d welcome financial sponsors from churches throughout the diocese. She can find local volunteers to provide the one-on-one help.

Bishop Dean Wolfe, in a message to all churches in early June, asked Kansas parishes to

WANT TO HELP? EWARM needs sponsors for the 11 new Burmese refugee families that will be arriving in Wichita in the next three to four months.

Sponsoring organizations contribute $3,000 toward a family’s living expenses and provide volunteers to help them become familiar with American culture.

Churches outside the Wichita area can make financial contributions, and EWARM officials will find local volunteers to help the families.

Photos by Eleanor Blaker

Cars line up outside St. Paul’s on May 15 as first responders from a variety of Manhattan-area agencies stop by for a free meal. This was the fifth year the parish hosted Riley County Emergency Personnel Appreciation Day.

Manhattan church honors emergency personnel with a day of free food

If interested in sponsoring a refugee family in whole ($3,000) or in part, contact EWARM executive director Shannon Mahan at shannon.mahan@ewarm.org or (316) 977-9276.

help members better understand EWARM’s ministry and to consider donating part of the offering it received on June 23 — the Sunday nearest World Refugee Day on June 20 –— to EWARM. Mahan said she hopes many churches will come to know more about the life-changing work the Episcopal agency is doing, and she said she welcomes the financial support, too. v

Homemade food drew 97 people to the Emergency Personnel Appreciation Day.

For a fifth year members of St. Paul’s, Manhattan said “thank you” to area emergency personnel in a most tangible way — with free meals available throughout the day so all could stop by to eat, no matter what shift they worked.

The church invited all the first responders in Riley County: police, firefighters, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, Kansas State University police and volunteer firefighters.

In all 97 people stopped by during the day; when the project started five years ago, the church served 60.

Parishioners signed up to provide a variety of food suitable for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They also were asked to volunteer to help with set up and clean up, serving guests, and providing a friendly greeting for those who stopped by.

The event was headed again this year by Eleanor Blaker, who made sure all the emergency departments were aware of the day honoring their efforts. Blaker said she hopes even more people will stop by when the parish offers its appreciation again next year — Melodie Woerman v

4 • The Harvest • May/June 2013

Submitted photos

Runners take off from the start line June 15 for the first-ever “Kindness Moves Me” 5K race sponsored

by Episcopal Social Service-Venture House in Wichita.

First ESS 5K encourages community kindness The first-ever 5K race sponsored by Episcopal Social Services–Venture House in Wichita was a big success, raising money to help the agency and connecting with many people who hadn’t heard of ESS before.

But beyond that, the June 15 event, dubbed “Kindness Moves Me,” helped the participants be more aware of kindness in their lives, as well as showing kindness toward themselves by promoting a healthy lifestyle.

Jennifer Wise, ESS’s director of development and public relations, said 225 runners and walkers participated in the event, which began in front of the ESS building near downtown Wichita and wound its way for 3.1 miles through nearby Riverside Park before ending back at the start line.

In addition to the timed 5K, there also was a 1K family walk/run.

Wise said, “The culture of the event was truly unique in that all of the participants really were thinking about how they can support and show kindness to others.”

Each of the runners and walkers was asked to perform an intentional act of kindness on race day.

“We received very positive feedback about the event,” Wise said, “and next year’s event is scheduled for June 14.”

The event also raised $21,000 for ESS’s programs, which include employment help, representative payee services, aid to youth and food support.

Since 1983 Episcopal Social Services has served people in need especially in the downtown Wichita

Submitted photo

Jerry Malone (left) reaches out to greet Cherry Smith, the dispatcher for the alarm company whose quick notice helped save Malone’s life after a fire at her Wichita home April 23. The two met at an event sponsored by the company on May 16.

Three of the 225 participants in the race use a picture frame prop to emphasize that promoting kindness was a key element of the race.

area, as a broad-based social service agency. It is an official institution of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas.

— Melodie Woerman v

Wichita woman thanks company that saved her life

By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest Jerry Malone says it’s just good manners to say thank-you when someone has done something helpful for you. But in her case, that help went beyond common courtesy. It saved her life.

That thank-you went to the alarm company ADT, whose smoke detector and prompt dispatcher got Malone out of her house after a devastating fire.

Screaming smoke alarm

Malone, a member of St. James’, Wichita, awoke in the early hours of April 23 with her smoke detector “screaming,” she said. A minute later Cherry Smith, a dispatcher from ADT, was on the phone, telling her that her house was on fire.

Thinking it had to be a mistake, Malone left her second-floor bedroom to check and encountered heavy smoke in the hallway. She ran back to the phone and yelled, “My house is on fire!”

Smith said she was dispatching the fire department and told Malone to leave the house immediately, so the Wichitan ran barefoot outside in her nightgown.

More than 20 firefighters in seven trucks arrived quickly and extinguished the blaze before it had spread much beyond the basement, where it had begun as a result of a lightning strike, Malone said. Smoke and water damage was extensive, however.

Company took notice

Later that day, she called the ADT headquarters to thank them for saving her life. Her heartfelt message got the attention of ADT corporate executives, who decided to arrange a “LifeSaver” event in Wichita on May 16.

They flew Cherry in from the dispatch office in Irving, Texas, where she works, and for the first time in her 12-year career with the company, Cherry got to meet in person someone she’d helped over the phone.

ADT presented LifeSaver Awards to Cherry and to three technicians who have serviced Malone’s alarm system since it was installed 18 years ago.

The event also included the presentation of a $5,000 check to the Wichita Fire Department in recognition of their heroic work to save Malone’s house.

Malone said she also was videotaped telling her story as part of a training film the company plans to use with its employees. “It will help them understand they really do save lives,” she said.

Malone said repairs to her home are underway, and she hopes to move back in August. Insurance is covering the cost.

Since the fire, she has become a fierce advocate for smoke detectors. “Check your smoke detector batteries once a month, not once a year,” she said. “Smoke detectors can save lives, especially in the middle of the night, when you are vulnerable.” v

May/June 2013 • The Harvest • 5

Sharing

faith in the

Flint Hills MegaCamp 2013 The Rev. David Lynch, curate at St. James’, Wichita, leads a procession of elementary students to the joint Eucharist, known as MegaEucharist, for all campers, counselors and staff at MegaCamp.

Story by Melodie Woerman Photos by David Lynch, Megan Tyner and Caitlin Canaday For a third year, students from elementary through senior high gathered for a single week of summer camp, known as MegaCamp. Two hundred campers were joined by 50 adult counselors and staff June 2-8 at Camp Wood, a YMCA camp near Elmdale, southwest of Emporia, in the heart of the Flint Hills. For more than 70 years it has been the site of summer Ted Wheeler, a high school student from St. Aidan’s, Olathe, paddles camps sponsored by the Episcopal Diohard during the annual cardboard boat race, trying to keep afloat his boat made from cardboard, plastic sheeting and duct tape. cese of Kansas.

The theme for each of the age groups While this year’s camp experience carried on — elementary, junior high and senior high — was many traditions — cardboard boat races, talent “Found, Known and Loved.” night and kissing a fish plaque at lunch when you It formed the basis of daily worship, music, receive three pieces of mail — much about this small group discussions and prayer. The groups year’s camp was new. were housed in separate sections of the camp, alIt was the first year as director for diocesan lowing each to provide age-specific activities.

Youth Missioner Karen Schlabach, who assumed But on June 5, everyone came together at the her duties in January. She’d been on staff for amphitheater near the camp’s beloved High-Y hill senior high camp for six years, but she said her for MegaEucharist, a joint communion celebration. new role gave her the chance to be part of what Campers also had the chance to participate in a all groups were doing. variety of activities provided by the YMCA camp “It was nice to worship with the elementary staff, including canoeing, sports, horseback riding, campers, learn from junior high camp program, swimming, games and the climbing tower and spend time in workshops for all age groups,” she said.

But Schlabach wasn’t the only new staff member. She said the three camp directors and program directors all were first-timers, as were two of the three chaplains and the camp nurse. She gave much of the credit for a successful camp to them.

“Without their courage to step up and be excellent leaders, camp would not have gone as well as it did. They worked hard, acted professionally and were a lot of fun!”

Campers from 31 churches

Junior high students gather for some quiet time in their family group on an outcropping rocks at the camp, set in the beauty of the Flint Hills.

Schlabach said campers came from 26 Diocese of Kansas Episcopal churches and five from outside the diocese — Grace, Hutchinson; St. Paul’s, and St. Andrew’s in Kansas City, Mo.; St. John’s Cathedral,

An Episcopal flag that had belonged to the late Archdeacon Jim Upton and was used when he was junior high director flew again at Camp Wood, after Racine Zackula, junior high counselor from St. John’s, Wichita, came to have it. Upton’s daughter, Megan Upton-Tyner, was this year’s director of junior high camp.

Jacksonville, Fla.; and St. Andrew’s, Roswell, N.M. Twelve campers were not Episcopalians.

Of the 200 campers, 65 were elementary students, 83 were junior high and 52 were senior high.

Nine high school seniors were honored at their final year of camp, and they shared memories from their previous summers at Camp Wood.

She said that 33 percent of the cost of sending youth to camp — more than $26,000 — was provided by scholarships or other fundraising means by 19 churches.

A total of 97 campers got scholarships from their parishes, and 22 of them also received diocesan scholarship funding. Another seven campers received diocesan financial help only. v

6 • The Harvest • May/June 2013

Churches provide food help as needs of the working poor grow

By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest

Diocesan Convention set for Oct. 25-26 in Topeka

Convention and ProThe keynote speakvincial Synod er for this year’s Di One clergy and ocesan Convention one lay at-large memwill be Bishop Stacy ber of the Council of Sauls, chief operating Trustees officer at the Episco One clergy atpal Church Center in large member of the New York. He previCouncil of Trustees, ously had served as unexpired term (1 bishop of the Diocese year) of Lexington.

Bishop Stacy Sauls Nominations Convention will take place Oct. 25-26 at the Capitol should be sent to Nominations chair Plaza Hotel and Conference Center Ashley Petty, 654 South Poplar, Wichita, KS 67211. in Topeka.

A required form for use by all The theme for this year’s Diocesan Convention is “Frontiers of nominees is on the convention Faith,” calling to mind the diocese’s page of the diocesan website, www. frontier past as well as new frontiers episcopal-ks.org.

Convention also will ratify lay that await faith communities in the members of the Council of Trustees 21st century. who will be elected by convocations at their September meetings.

Deadlines are Aug. 15 Debatable resolutions Aug. 15 has been set as the Any proposed debatable resodeadline to submit a variety of items for action at this year’s Diocesan lutions should be sent before the Convention, Oct. 25-26 in Topeka. deadline to Resolutions chair the Rev. Jan Chubb, 1329 Grand Ave., Nominations Elections will fill several offices, Parsons KS 67357-4256.

Amendments to canons or including deputies to General Convention and members of the Council constitution Any proposed changes to the of Trustees: Four clergy and four lay diocesan constitution or canons deputies to General Conven- should be directed to the chair of the Constitution and Canons comtion and Provincial Synod Four clergy and four lay mittee, Frank Taylor, P.O. Box 550, alternate deputies to General Olathe, KS 66051. v

Kansas, West Mo. bishops to discuss an inclusive church Kansas Bishop Dean Wolfe and West Missouri Bishop Martin Field will be featured during a “Bishops Open Forum” Sept. 12 sponsored by the Greater Kansas City Chapter of Integrity.

It will take place from 7-9 p.m. at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, 415 West 13th St., in Kansas City, Mo. The event is designed to help clergy, lay leaders, as well as anyone who is interested, look at where dioceses and parishes stand following the decision by the 2012 General Convention to authorize use of a rite to bless same-sex unions.

According to Larry Bingham, one of the event’s organizers, participants will have the chance to discuss a variety of questions: Has there been any change in your parish as a result of this resolution?

Has your parish been asked to bless any same-sex unions?

If your church has done so, what has been the reaction?

If your church hasn’t been asked, has your vestry and congregation discussed the issue in anticipation of such a request?

Bingham said the gathering also will discuss ways churches can reach out to the gay and lesbian community so they know what the Episcopal Church has to offer them as members.

“Like all evangelism efforts,” he said, “we cannot sit back and wait for potential members to walk through our doors.”

Bingham said that since Christian churches over the centuries have been a primary institution passing negative judgment on gay and lesbian people, “it is going to take a special effort and a lot of radical hospitality to convince them that we really mean it this time.”

Noting that the Episcopal Church has been discussing the role of gay and lesbian people since 1976, Bingham said that simply passing a resolution doesn’t guarantee an inclusive church. “That can only happen with actions by our bishops, congregational leaders and individual members.” v

Food pantries and parishbased food ministries across the diocese are seeing an increase in demand for food, most of it coming from people organizers classify as the working poor.

While that designation officially means someone who is employed but falls below the official poverty line ($11,490 for an individual or $23,550 for a family of four), many seeking aid may make more money than that but still struggle to make ends meet.

Part-time workers

Ross Warnell, manager of the food pantry at St. Paul’s, Kansas City, said the diocese’s largest pantry sees a growing number of people who are working part-time or seasonal jobs. Many tell him they are looking for steadier work but can’t find anything.

“There are lots of reasons for that,” Warnell said. “Many are poorly educated, and there are fewer jobs available for these people.”

Barry Molineux, of the Trinity Interfaith Food Pantry in Lawrence, said the largest group that comes seeking aid is “families who are employed but need to extend their food dollars.” The Trinity pantry has seen significant increases in requests for help in January and April, but other months have remained steady, he said.

Both Warnell and Molineux say they hear reports of hungry children at home during the summer, when school lunches aren’t available. Warnell said he sees a “bump in numbers with kids out of school.”

Molineux noted that seven locations in Lawrence serve free breakfasts and lunches to school children during June and July.

Helping kids eat

St. Paul’s, Clay Center, for six years has provided a free lunch to any child in town who wants to eat, and this summer they have expanded to two locations. Both are in parks where young people spend summer hours.

Donna Long said the church, which has a membership of about 90, this summer is feeding free, healthy lunches to about 60 to 80 children a day, Monday through Friday from June 3 through July 26. The church prepares all the food.

Because it is an approved U.S. Department of Agriculture lunch site, the church receives a modest reimbursement per child for food costs. Grants and donations cover the rest.

In addition, St. Paul’s oversees another food program for the town of 4,500 people.

Harvesters, the large food bank in Kansas City, once a

Photo by Ross Warnell

A woman looks through boxes of cereal as a volunteer helps her shop at the food pantry at St. Paul’s, Kansas City.

Photo by Mel Griggs

Volunteers from St. Paul’s, Clay Center, move produce from large bags into boxes of food that they distribute to anyone who stops by a local parking lot during a monthly food distribution.

month delivers about 10,000 pounds of fresh food to the parking lot of a local retail store. St. Paul’s members then place it into bags and hand it to people as they drive through the parking lot.

They are serving about 760 people a month through this program.

Hunger in Kansas

Feeding America, a network of regional food banks of which Harvesters is a part, has compiled a Map the Meal Gap, a n online map of the United States color-coded to show areas of hunger insecurity.

It notes that 16.4 percent of all Americans are eligible for some kind of food assistance program.

In Kansas, that number is 15.1 percent, but it jumps to 22.6 percent of all Kansas

children, higher than the U.S. average.

The Map the Meal Gap lists the five counties with the highest levels of food insecurity for both the overall population and for children.

All of the Kansas counties listed, whether for children or the overall population, are within the Diocese of Kansas.

Wyandotte County, home to Kansas City, is on both lists, and both show significant food issues in parts of southeast Kansas.

The map shows that 51 percent of food-insecure Kansans earn too much money to qualify for federal nutrition programs and instead must rely on charities for help.

While overall food insecurity is concentrated in eastern Kansas, children at the highest risk of hunger are spread across the state. v

May/June 2013 • The Harvest • 7

50 people offer ministry through Kansas to Kenya Fifty people in three teams traveled to Kenya this summer to engage in a variety of ministry needs in conjunction with the diocese’s Kansas to Kenya (K2K) ministry.

Some ongoing projects in the region around Maai Mahiu received enhancements, and patients in that area were seen by the health care professionals who made up the medical team.

Bishop Dean Wolfe watches as a student demonstrates use of an e-reader at the Osborne Library in Maai Mahiu.

Bishop Wolfe dedicated the library during his trip to Kenya in

Safe house and new library

Two highlights of this summer’s work were construction of Agatha’s House, a safe house for abused women that is believed to be the first of its kind in the entire country, and the dedication of the Osborne Library, which opened last November.

A team of college students and adults helped complete interior and exterior work, landscaping and a garden at the safe house, which is located Naivasha. They even helped haul nine tons of large stones that were used for a privacy fence surrounding the property.

Members of the community team

June.

developed rain water and drip irrigation systems for the garden.

The house is the brainchild of Nyakio Kaniu-Lake, a native of Kenya, where

Photo by Bob Basow

violence against women only recently has been recognized as an issue, she said.

“Women who are abused and endure violence have nowhere to go,” she said, but Agatha’s House will help change that.

Bishop Dean Wolfe made his third trip to Kenya and while there dedicated the Osborne Library, located in Maai Mahiu. The library, which opened last November, was given in memory of his parents by John and Renee Osborne,

formerly of St. James’, Wichita, who now live in Florida.

The library is filled not with books but with 37 e-readers, electronic devices like a Kindle that allow cheaper and easier distribution of greater numbers of books to the 1,200 students the facility serves.

Members of the college team helped participate in educational programming at the library, aided by college-aged students from the Anglican Church of Kenya.

A medical team, made up of nurses, doctors, dentists, pharmacists, and pre-med and pre-dental college students, treated patients in Maai Mahiu as well as in the nearby region of the Maasai tribe. They also handed out medications and used eye glasses.

The community team undertook a number of development projects, including nutrition and health instruction, student achievement enhancements, construction of food dehydrators to preserve garden produce, introduction of the Alcoholics Anonymous concept, and construction of two houses for members of All Saints Anglican Church in Maai Mahiu.

They also added a drip irrigation system to the garden at the house of a priest at All Saints Church..

Deacon Steve Segebrecht, Trinity, Lawrence, is the director of K2K. — Melodie Woerman v

Photo by Patrick Funston

Three members of the college team (from left, Emily Huff, student at K-State, Caitlin Gilliland at K.U. and Charmetra Walker at Emporia State) help move large stones that became part of the privacy wall around Agatha’s House, a safe house for abused women in the region of Naivasha, Kenya. It is believed to be the first such safe house in the country.

Photo by Scott Gunn

An interpreter (center) translates for a patient receiving an examination and a doctor who was in Kenya through the Kansas to Kenya ministry.

New space offers room for enhanced ministries

Submitted photo

Young members help rector the Rev. Gar Demo (right) use a Star Wars-style light saber to cut the ribbon opening the new parish hall at St. Thomas, Overland Park, as Bishop Dean Wolfe (left) looks on.

The event took place on Pentecost, May 19.

The parish’s building project began in July 2012 and included the new 5,000-square-foot parish hall, as well as a new 800-square-foot sacristy, a remodeled kitchen and narthex, and an enlarged parking lot. A new exterior entrance with landscaping tied the new and old parts of the building together.

According to the rector, the Rev. Gar Demo, the old parish hall could only seat 50, leaving no space for parish dinners or wedding and funeral receptions. The parking lot also was inadequate, resulting in unsafe conditions as people dodged cars on their way into church.

In 2011 the congregation undertook a capital campaign and pledged $1.55 million toward the project, which had a final cost of about $2.5 million.

Demo said since the new space opened, there have been several large funerals and weddings, “as well as a renewed sense of ministry.”

He notes that in 2012 the average Sunday attendance was 267, and in 2013 it has risen to 312. “We are seeing many new households join each week,” he said.

He said the new space opens the possibility for a training program for adults with disabilities, before- and after-school arts programs, more feeding ministries and enhanced adult formation activities. v

8 • The Harvest • May/June 2013

Around the diocese St. John’s, Abilene invited members of the community into the church for “Red Door Sunday” on Pentecost, to find out what the church is like behind its doors.

Members provided a variety of red foods for coffee hour.

the work of parishioner Andrew Leigh Bullard, who digitized more than 600 photos of parish activities into a database. Bullard accomplished the project as part of his requirements for graduation in May with a Master’s in Library Science.

Trinity, Arkansas City hosted the joint Vestry meeting with Grace, Winfield on June 5.

Epiphany, Independence priest the Rev. Kathi Babcock now offers a Bible study on “Women of the Old Testament” on Thursdays during the summer months.

Trinity, Atchison has a newly repaved parking lot to welcome worshippers. Donations were being sought to help defray the cost.

St. Mark’s, Blue Rapids joined with other community churches to provide a Vacation Bible School in June. The parish donated money toward the purchase of materials, and members helped furnished food items and paper goods that were needed during the week.

St. Paul’s, Clay Center was one of the sites on this year’s Clay Center Garden Tour. The meditation garden is located next door to the church and is open to the public.

St. Andrew’s, Derby asked members with any musical talent to help provide offertory anthems during the summer months, when the choir is on vacation.

St. Martin’s, Edwardsville member Alversa Milan has published a book, Raising Children is as Easy as 1, 2, 3. It’s available for purchase via Amazon.

Trinity, El Dorado is collecting a variety of household items to help equip apartments for refugee families that soon will be relocating to Wichita through the Episcopal Wichita Area Refugee Ministry.

St. Andrew’s, Emporia benefited from

Covenant, Junction City has a parish garden this summer, thanks to the efforts of parishioner Julia Adams. A variety of produce, from tomatoes to watermelons, will be donated to the local Open Door agency; members were encouraged to help themselves, too.

St. Paul’s, Kansas City has restarted a youth group, which members have named “The Workshop of Souls.” Youth leaders aim to get teens who have attended church recently involved, with plans to start a parish soccer team.

St. Margaret’s, Lawrence served as the host location for Family Promise, a program that provides overnight shelter for homeless people and families. The church opened its doors June 9-15, and members filled a variety of volunteer roles.

Trinity, Lawrence has two canine members that attend church regularly. Hepa, who is in training to become a service dog, joins John Broholm. Joey, a Pekinese, is a registered therapy dog who accompanies Annalise Lawrence.

St. Paul’s, Leavenworth awarded a college scholarship to Peter Gardner, a longtime parish member and senior acolyte. He will use the award when he attends Kansas State University.

St. Paul’s, Manhattan isn’t taking the summer off, with men’s and women’s groups offering several fellowship activities. Men were invited to gather for breakfast once a month in June, July and August, and the Episcopal Church Women’s “Lunch with Friends” potluck was schedule for June and July.

St. Paul’s, Marysville members volunteered their time in March at the Marshall County Food Pantry, with duties ranging from transporting donated goods to stocking shelves to assisting clients at the distribution center.

Submitted photo

Artist crafts statue for Derby church Wichita artist Denise Irwin has created a statue for St. Andrew’s, derby, of its patron saint. The depiction of one of Jesus’ apostles includes the X-shaped cross on which legend says Andrew was crucified.

The statue is made of fired clay finished with stains and waxes. It will be displayed in the church sanctuary.

Irwin, who is an Education for Ministry student at the parish, serves on the boards of a number of local arts institutions and calls herself an “arts activist.” She also is the marketing coordinator for KMUW-FM, Wichita’s public radio station. v

St. Michael’s, Mission welcomed the Rev. Scott Gunn, executive director of Forward Movement, for the Bigger Bible Study July 22-25. Classes for adults also included stories of transformation from parish members, as well as the history of Operation Breakthrough from Sister Berta Sailer.

Ascension, Neodesha marked its patronal festival with an Ascension Day service May 9 at the church, featuring the Rev. Antoinette Tackett from St. Paul’s, Coffeyville.

A supper followed the service.

St. Matthew’s, Newton Vestry solicited input from members about small groups they’d like to see started, as they seek to expand the small group ministry already in place.

St. Aidan’s, Olathe added the singing stylings of The Sensations to its June 15

Submitted photo

Cathedral Fourth service draws a big crowd Boy Scouts carry the American flag into Grace Cathedral, Topeka, for the church’s annual Independence Day service. The communitywide celebration this year drew more than 760 people, including a volunteer choir of 110 drawn from throughout the Topeka area.

The service featured prayers and readings, as well as patriotic music. This year’s speaker was Topeka attorney Pedro Irigonegaray. v

gathering of the Holy Smokers. Burgers and hot dogs were grilled up following the Saturday 5 p.m. service.

Grace, Ottawa Vestry announced that plans are underway to build a new gathering room, containing a restroom and a small kitchen, on the west side of the church building.

St. Thomas, Overland Park took a special springtime collection for the Kansas City diaper bank, HappyBottoms. Parish members were asked to bring a variety of disposable diapers to help supply people in need.

St. John’s, Parsons has asked members to consider becoming a “Prayer Warrior,” who will gather each week to pray for how the church should proceed with an evangelism program.

St. Peter’s, Pittsburg is continuing to study how to replace the sound system in the church, including amplification devices for hearing-impaired members.

St. Luke’s, Shawnee has begun an informal worship service on Saturdays at 5 p.m. A discussion on how to read the Bible is included.

Grace Cathedral, Topeka asked members to bring their cell phone to church on Pentecost, with the request that they post photos to a variety of social media to let friends know what worship at the cathedral is like.

St. David’s, Topeka raised more than

$8,300 for the American Cancer Society as the church’s team, St. David’s Crusaders, participated in the ACS Relay for Life walk at a local high school May 31-June 1.

St. Luke’s, Wamego offers a weekly Tuesday morning Bible study that follows an hour of quilting and crafts. Both take place in the Guild Hall.

Good Shepherd, Wichita has undertaken a “Shepherd’s Project,” designed to improve the church building, including painting the church interior, replacing nave carpeting, refinishing concrete floors, upgrading the sound system and installing a new outdoor sign with LED-lighting.

St. Bartholomew’s, Wichita celebrated the parish’s 50th anniversary June 8 with a potluck supper, bingo and cake.

St. James’, Wichita offered an evening of fellowship June 23 with a Hymn Sing in the nave, featuring selections suggested by members, followed by an ice cream social.

St. John’s, Wichita member Max Johnston visited monuments and memorials in Washington. D.C. thanks to the Honor Flight program. Johnston is a veteran of World War II, and Honor Flight organizes trips for veterans to see historic sites in the nation’s capital.

Grace, Winfield member Michelle Stout-Zakharov organized an evening of music June 29 to honor longtime Winfield High School choral director Betty Mullett.

It included a choir of former students, some from as far away as Thailand. v

May/June 2013 • The Harvest • 9

People

Lawrence deacon receives national award for service Deacon Steve Segebrecht, Trinity, Lawrence, was announced as a recipient of the Stephen Award by the Association of Episcopal Deacons in recognition of his leadership and work on behalf of the diocese’s Kansas to Kenya ministry, for which he serves as executive director.

This year’s awards were presented on June 14 during the meeting in Williamsburg, Va. Because Segebrecht was in Kenya on a mission trip at that time, his award was accepted on his behalf by Archdeacon Charles Pearce.

The award, named for St. Stephen, the first deacon, is given by the association to recognize those who particularly exemplify the

Deacon Steve Segebrecht

charges given to deacons in their ordination to “follow Jesus” and to“show Christ’s people that in serving the helpless they are serv-

Youth intern has a busy summer and staff person at the Annie Unruh is junior high section finding that running of MegaCamp and youth events is a lot helped with the annual harder than attendMissionPalooza suming them. mer urban ministry The soon-to-be experience in Kansas college junior, a City. member of St. MiKaren Schlabach, chael and All AnAnnie Unruh diocesan youth misgels in Mission, is sioner, said Unruh also serving as an intern in the diocesan youth office this is putting to good use her graphic design major at California’s Chapsummer.

Unruh said learning the ropes man University.

She has redesigned the camp of what it takes to run a youth program has been “a really eye- staff manual, created of a volunopening experience.” She said teer manual for MissionPalooza, she’s attended lots of youth events designed postcards to notify stu(including 12 years of church dents about upcoming events, and camp), but that “staffing an event designed the T-shirt and flyer for and attending it are very different Fall Fun Fest.

The diocese has sponsored 13 experiences. You get different summer youth interns since 2005. things out of it.”

— Melodie Woerman v Unruh served as a family leader

ing Christ himself.”

In all, 26 deacons were recognized at this year’s convention.

This is the third time a Diocese of Kansas deacon has received this award since it was first presented in 1995. Others were Deacon Bob Parker in 1995 and Archdeacon Jim Upton in 2005. Both are now deceased.

Dioceses nominate deacons for the award. The association grants them once every three years at the group’s convention.

According to statistics kept by the association, there are 2,955 deacons serving in dioceses of the Episcopal Church.

The Diocese of Kansas has 46 deacons, some of whom have retired from active service. v

resources to assist The Rev. Jan Hurricane Sandy Chubb, vicar of St. victims.”

Timothy’s, Iola, The role of has been named ERD diocesan coby Bishop Dean ordinator is one Wolfe as the Diof education and ocese of Kansas encouragement, coordinator for according to inforEpiscopal Relief mation provided and Development. by the agency.

ERD is an inThe Rev. Jan Chubb They are to ternational relief make sure that inand development agency and a response to hu- formation about the agency is man suffering on behalf of the shared throughout the diocese and to encourage others to beEpiscopal Church.

In naming Chubb to the post, come involved in “a network Bishop Wolfe said, “Jan is an of caring individuals” through extraordinary priest and deeply contributions, and establishing committed to caring for those in parish representatives to help need. She has done exemplary share information and raise work in our diocese in collecting awareness of what ERD does. v

Campus interns ready for new school year at K.U. and K-State

By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest

T Caroline Howard, K.U. campus intern

Clergy news The Rev. Shawn Streepy has accepted a call to become priest in charge at St. Aidan’s, Olathe, beginning Aug. 1. He has been an assisting priest at St. Luke’s, Shawnee.

The Rev. Laurie Lewis has accepted a call to become priest in charge at Trinity, Arkansas City, and Grace, Winfield, beginning Sept.

1. She most recently has been assistant priest at St. Stephen’s, Wichita.

The Rev. Lavonne Seifert will become the priest in charge at St. Paul’s, Clay Center, beginning Oct. 15.

The Rev. David Cox is the new assistant rector at St. Michael and All Angels, Mission, beginning June 2. He previously taught at State Fair Community College in Sedalia, Mo. The Rev. Steve Mues, rector of St. Stephen’s, Wichita, since 2005, has announced his retirement, effective Sept. 30.

The Rev. Susan Sawyer, the current rector of St. Paul’s, Clay Center, will retire in late September or early October. A celebration honoring her ministry in Clay Center is set for Oct. 18.

The Rev. Jim Cook, who has been rector of St. Luke’s, Shawnee, for the past 18 years, accepted a call to become rector of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Stillwater, Okla., beginning Aug. 1.

Bishop Dean Wolfe has made the following parish assignments for four deacons: Sandy Horton-Smith to St. Paul’s, Manhattan; Rex Matney to Church of the Covenant, Junction City; Beth Drumm to St. Michael and All Angels, Mission; and Peggy Flynn to St. James’, Wichita.

Condolences go to the Rev. David Jenkins, priest in charge at Covenant, Junction City, on the death of his mother, Polly, on July 4. v

Iola priest named ERD coordinator for diocese

Taylor Mather, K-State campus intern

here will be one new and one familiar face among the campus interns serving for the 2013-2014 school year.

New intern Caroline Howard will be living at St. Anselm Canterbury House at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

Returning for a second year is Taylor Mather, who is in residence at St. Francis Canterbury House at Kansas State University in Manhattan.

Howard is a native of Pittsburg, where she has been a lifelong member of St. Peter’s. She graduated from K.U. in the spring with a degree in textile design.

While at K.U. she had served as a campus peer minister. She was named a Postulant for Holy Orders in May. Howard said she is looking forward to working with the new and returning peer ministers who will be living in the house this fall.

She also looks forward to forging new bonds among Episcopalians in the city.

She said, “I think the main goal

of my internship this coming year will be to really encourage interaction between the ministry at the house and our local parishes.”

She said she also hopes to resume a monthly Eucharist at the house, led by area clergy.

Taylor is a native of Mose Lake, Wash., and a graduate of Washington State University. He served as campus intern at K-State last year and also was one of the leaders of college team that worked in Kenya this summer.

Both interns will serve as mentors to the undergraduate peer ministers and will help oversee their work. They also will work with peer ministers on other campuses across the diocese.

They will help organize events specifically for students on the campuses where they work and will help create service projects for peer ministers and other students on campus.

This is the seventh year the Diocese of Kansas has hired graduate campus interns. They are paid a modest stipend for the academic year and are provided housing at the Canterbury house on their campus. v

Ordinations set for Aug. 24 in Topeka Two people will be ordained in a diocesanwide service set for Saturday, Aug. 24 at 10:30 a.m. at Grace Cathedral in Topeka.

The Rev. Lavonne Seifert, who was made a transitional deacon in January, will be ordained to the priesthood.

She recently was named priest in charge of St. Paul’s, Clay Center, beginning Oct. 15.

Originally from St. Michael and All Angels in Mission, she has been serving an internship at St. Aidan’s, Olathe.

She holds a degree from the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Mass., and also has been

attending the Kansas School for Ministry.

J. Ted Blakley, a member of Good Shepherd, Wichita, will be ordained a transitional deacon.

Blakley holds a doctorate in New Testament from the University of St. Andrew’s in Scotland.

He also has been a student at the Kansas School for Ministry.

He recently was named part-time curate at St. John’s, Wichita, beginning Sept. 1.

All clergy who attend the service are invited to walk in procession, with red stoles.

A reception to honor the newly ordained will take place after the service. v

10 • The Harvest • May/June 2013

National and international news Anglican news briefs Episcopal News Service and Anglican Communion News Service  Two Illinois dioceses vote to reunite. Members of the dioceses of Chicago and Quincy unanimously agreed June 8 to reunify, something that no other dioceses have done in the Episcopal Church for 70 years. The reunified diocese, to be known as the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, will include the 125 congregations and chaplaincies and more than 36,000 members of the existing Diocese of Chicago in northern Illinois, and the nine Quincy congregations and 755 members in west central Illinois. In November 2008, about 60 percent of the members of several congregations in the Diocese of Quincy left the diocese and the Episcopal Church to join the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone. The only other time an Episcopal Church diocese has reunited with its “parent” diocese occurred in 1943 when the then-Diocese of Duluth rejoined the Diocese of Minnesota.

Contributions from diocese for tornado relief top $13,000 Financial contributions from parishes across the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas have provided $13,363.42 to help victims of recent tornadoes in Oklahoma.

On May 21, following the twisters that ravaged the area around Oklahoma City, Bishop Dean Wolfe called on each congregation in the diocese to take up a special collection for the tornado relief fund established by Episcopal Relief and Development.

In his letter asking for help, Bishop Wolfe said that Kansans are no stranger to the force of these storms.

“We all have been watching the pictures of devasta-

tion coming to us from our neighbors in Oklahoma,” he wrote. “We who live where the cool, dry air from the west meets the warm, moist air from the south know the destructive results of powerful tornados in a populated area.”

Episcopal Relief and Development is an international relief and development agency and a compassionate response to human suffering on behalf of the Episcopal Church. It works to heal a hurting world and is guided by the principles of compassion, dignity and generosity.

— Melodie Woerman v

 Massachusetts bishop undergoes treatment for brain cancer. Bishop Thomas Shaw, SSJE, bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts, is undergoing radiation and chemotherapy for brain cancer. The diagnosis came on May 24, just a few days after he underwent surgery to remove a mass on his brain that had been discovered through tests only a day before. In January he had called for the election of a bishop coadjutor, noting he has been bishop of the diocese for 19 years. The election is scheduled for April 5, 2014.  Canadian church votes to restructure committees. On July 4 the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada voted to abolish all but two of the national church’s standing committees, as part of proposed changes to its governance structures. The pension committee and the financial management committee will remain as standing committees. The change also creates five co-ordinating committees, with membership limited to five people, down from the previous seven to 12.  Sudanese primate calls for unity. The Primate of the Episcopal Church of Sudan has called on the people of South Sudan to be “united in order to achieve lasting national healing, peace and reconciliation.” The Most Rev. Daniel Deng Bul made the call in a strategic paper developed by his office to help guide the peace process. Archbishop Deng was appointed chairperson of the national Reconciliation Committee by the President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, in April this year to facilitate the “healing the mental wounds” in the country. Archbishop Deng acknowledged that South Sudan’s long track record of successive initiatives, combined with deep and fresh emotional wounds from the civil war, suggests that the road to national healing, peace and reconciliation will be difficult.  New primate for Papua New Guinea. Bishop Clyde Igara from Dogura Diocese was elected as the new Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea in June. He takes over from Archbishop Joe Kopapa, who retired late last year.  Irish ordinand runs equivalent of 52 marathons. Church of Ireland ordinand Alastair Donaldson has begun his epic challenge to run the equivalent of 52 marathons in eight-and-a-half weeks, spreading the Gospel as he goes. Donaldson’s 1,298 mile journey will take him on a lap of the island of Ireland. He has taken part in five marathons over the last seven years, but his summer challenge will see him run an average of 26 miles a day, six days a week, for eight-and-a-half weeks. He will be supported by other runners at various stages on the route and is inviting local runners to join him along the way. The 31-year-old just finished his first year at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute.  Rhode Island church serves neighboring students. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church in Kingston, R.I., has been busy caring for their next-door neighbors, students of the University of Rhode Island. In early March, students and parishioners gathered to assemble 35 boxes of food to support needy students with a week’s worth of meals. The church also has been holding monthly “feed a friend” dinners, where parishioners cook students their favorite meal, and they handed out hot cross buns at the end of Lent. During exams, St. Augustine’s handed out Smarties to go.

The stressed students especially appreciated the attached prayer card. v

Photo by Diocese of Western New York

Western New York church responds to vandalism with grace The Episcopal Diocese of Western New York Residents of Randolph, N.Y., awoke May 20 to a villagewide rash of vandalism. Buildings had been spray painted with graffiti — some malicious and some an apparent cry for help.

Across the side of Grace Episcopal Church was painted a question of the second type: “Can I still get to heaven if I kill myself?”

As the Cattaraugus Sheriff’s Department spent the day investigating, the Rev. Tom Broad, Grace Church’s priest, pondered what

the church’s immediate response might be. His idea was an unconventional one.

After conferring with two of the church’s lay leaders, he borrowed a can of spray paint from a neighbor and added the church’s reply: “God loves you with no exceptions!”

The question is a very real one in this town that has had its share of teen suicides.

According to the CDC’s National Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBS) 2011 survey, 19.3 percent of female respondents and 12.5 percent

of male respondents seriously considered attempting suicide in the 12-month period preceding the survey.

The YRBS monitors priority health risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death, disability and social problems among youth and adults in the United States.

The national YRBS is conducted every two years during the spring semester and provides data representative of 9th through 12th grade students in public and private schools throughout the United States. v

Anglican archbishops pledge ‘committed solidarity’ with Christians in Egypt Lambeth Palace The archbishops of Canterbury and York have joined the call for prayers for unity, reconciliation and an end to violence in Egypt.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Archbishop of York John Sentamu wrote to the Coptic and Anglican leaders in Egypt on July 11 pledging their “committed solidarity” amid the recent turmoil in the country.

The two men are the top prelates in the Church of England.

Writing to His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, and to the Most Rev. Mouneer Anis, the president bishop of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the archbishops said they had been “very mindful of recent

developments taking place in Egypt” as they presided over the Church of England’s General Synod in York in early July.

They added they were “very grateful” for the presence at synod of Bishop Angaelos, general bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, who attended as an ecumenical observer and spoke powerfully of the present situation in Egypt and his hopes for reconciliation.

The archbishops wrote, “As presidents of the General Synod, we are sending this message of committed solidarity with you at this time. We join in the call to pray for Egypt for unity and reconciliation and the ending to all violence, praying that all parties may be able to work together for a common future.”

They added: “May the Lord grant you grace and strength in this ministry of reconciliation.” v

May/June 2013 • The Harvest • 11

Mississippi church forms canned-food labyrinth

Photo by Shannon Manning

Church of England considers plans for women bishops

By Matthew Davies Episcopal News Service

when it passed a motion to remove the legal obstacles to ordaining women as bishops.

The Church of England’s General Synod resumed Long path toward women’s ordination The long path toward accepting women’s ordained the debate on women bishops, calling for the creation of a steering committee that would prepare ministry in the Anglican Communion began in 1920 draft legislation in time for synod’s next meeting in when the Lambeth Conference called (via Resolutions 47-52) for the diaconate of November. women to be restored “formally A motion passed July 8 and canonically,” adding that it also asks that a draft Act of should be recognized throughout Synod, or draft declaration, the communion. making provisions for those The first female priest in the who as a matter of theologicommunion, the Rev. Li Tim-Oi, cal conviction are unable to was ordained in Hong Kong in receive the ministry of women 1944. Due to outside pressure, she bishops, be prepared for synresigned her license but not her od’s February 2014 meeting. holy orders, following World War The motion passed with 319 II. In 1971, the Rev. Jane Hwang voting in favor, 84 against and and the Rev. Joyce Bennett were 22 abstentions. ordained priests in the Diocese The July 6-9 sessions in of Hong Kong, though their York were the first time synod ministries were not recognized had met since last November, in many parts of the Anglican when previous legislation Communion. to enable women to become Photo By Keith Blundy In 1974, there was an “irregubishops narrowly failed to Archbishop of Canterbury Justin secure the required majority of Welby addresses the General Synod lar” ordination of 11 women in the U.S.-based Episcopal Church, votes in all three houses (laity, of the Church of England. which officially authorized womclergy and bishops), despite a 73 percent majority overall. The legislation failed in en’s priestly ordination two years later.

Bishop Barbara Harris, now retired, was elected the House of Laity by six votes. bishop suffragan of Massachusetts in 1988 and became the Anglican Communion’s first female bishop ‘Matter of urgency’ The July 8 legislation, which was drafted by the after her consecration and ordination in 1989.

The Rt. Rev. Penelope Jamieson made history in House of Bishops during its May meeting, reaffirmed its commitment to admitting women to the episcopate 1989 when she was elected bishop of the Diocese of Dunedin, New Zealand, and became the first woman “as a matter of urgency.”

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby reminded to serve as a diocesan bishop in the Anglican Comthe synod that “this is not about whether but about munion.

The Rt. Rev. Mary Adelia McLeod, who was orhow. ... The approach before us is a radical way forward ... provides the possibility of building trust, dained a priest in 1980, was consecrated in 1993 as creates space for imagination,” and commits “to or- bishop of the Diocese of Vermont, becoming the first daining women on exactly the same basis as men and female diocesan bishop in the U.S.-based Episcopal both flourishing together in all parts of the church.” Church. She retired in 2001.

The Rt. Rev. Canon Nerva Cot Aguilera became The Church of England opened the priesthood to women in November 1992, five years after women the first female Anglican bishop in Latin America first were ordained to the diaconate. More than 5,000 when she was consecrated bishop suffragan of the women have been ordained as priests in England Episcopal Church of Cuba in June 2007.

The Rev. Ellinah Ntombi Wamukoya on Nov. since 1994 and today they represent nearly 40 percent 17, 2012, was ordained as bishop of Swaziland and of all clergy.

In July 2005, the General Synod began its steady became the first female bishop in any of the 12 Ancourse toward allowing them to become bishops glican provinces in Africa. v

Parishioners at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Jackson, Miss., created a unique labyrinth out of canned goods to benefit Stewpot’s Food Pantry.

The event took place during the church’s annual spring picnic.

Members donated more than 1,700 cans of food and then used them to create a seven-circuit labyrinth. Cans of beans, mandarin oranges, carrots, tuna, peanut butter and tomatoes lined the path to the center of the labyrinth and out again.

Both adults and children walked the winding food-lined path of abundance to the center. A small table with an empty white bowl at the labyrinth’s center served as a reminder that there are many empty bowls and stomachs in the community and state.

Two groups at St. James’, the Sparking Our Spirit Task Force and the Friends of the Labyrinth Committee, partnered to offer this experience to the parish.

Sparking Our Spirits is a task force charged with sparking enthusiasm and nurturing community through spiritual growth that leads to ministry.

The Friends of the Labyrinth sponsor regular contemplative labyrinth walks using the church’s new canvas labyrinth.

— Carolyn Ray for Episcopal News Service v

First Hmong priest in Anglican Communion ordained in Minnesota

By Haddayr Copley-Woods Episcopal News Service

Toua Vang was ordained June 27 by Diocese of Minnesota Bishop Brian N. Prior as an Episcopal priest.

Vang, a member of the Hmong-majority Holy Apostles Episcopal Church in St. Paul, Minn., is not only the first Hmong Episcopal priest but also the first Hmong priest in the entire Anglican Communion.

The Rev. Winfred Vergara, Episcopal Church missioner for Asiamerican Ministries, believes the significance of this ordination goes beyond simple demographics. “It demonstrates that the Episcopal Church welcomes all people,” says Vergara. “The Hmong, Nepalese, Cambodians and the Laos in the United States are probably some of the most marginalized, underprivileged communities here.”

Inspired by a conversation with the Rev. Joseph Constant from Virginia Theological Seminary about racial minorities in the church, Vang went through a self-awakening.

After much reflection and prayer following the visit with Constant, Vang felt that the Holy Spirit wanted him to think about his life.

Hardship of seminary

For a Hmong man with a family of four children to support, going to seminary was an enormous risk and hardship, explains the Rev. Letha Wilson-Barnard, the vicar of Holy Apostles and Vang’s sponsoring priest.

“This is a really important part of the story of this group of Hmong coming to the church,” she says. “In the 55 years since

they were first introduced by French Catholic missionaries to Christianity, only a few Hmong ever pursued the priesthood because being married with children is so important — it’s as if not doing that would be giving up a part of your humanity. Family is so deeply a part of the Hmong culture ... family is so critical, and to give up having children and being married — it was almost unthinkable.”

L e a v i n g t h e c lo s e - k n i t Hmong community in St. Paul, even temporarily, for Virginia Theological Seminary was equally difficult to contemplate.

“The thought of leaving families, jobs and responsibilities is too hard [for most Hmong to imagine],” she says. “It was a huge sacrifice for Toua and his family to do this. There are some Hmong working in Washington, D.C., but otherwise there is no community out there.”

His home congregation, Holy Apostles, is as unique as he is: its transformation into the only Episcopal Hmong-majority church was an unusual confluence of a Catholic Hmong community needing a worship home, fortuitous friendships, and a lot of hard work on the part of Hmong elders and Episcopal Church leaders.

“It’s interesting [now] that Holy Apostles has been engaged in translating the Book of Common Prayer in the Hmong language,” says Vergara.

“I would commend them in being our spokespersons for the Hmong as part of the total people of God.” Haddayr Copley-Woods is missioner for communications for the Episcopal Church in Minnesota. v

12 • The Harvest • May/June 2013

Reflections on faith and life

Sharing the Good News

Spiritual homelessness

By Laurie Gudim

They taught me that being rootless gives a person flexibility. They could pick up and go anywhere, and did, trusting in the wide world to take care of them. They daily tested the edges of possibility.

I don’t want to glorify this life style. It was excruciatingly hard, dangerous, painful and short.

All I want to say is that it taught me something. It taught me the importance of holding my “stuff” — the possessions in my life: houses, cars, jobs, money, the identity that comes with having a certain career or living in a certain kind of house — loosely. They taught me a kind of spiritual homelessness.

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Not too long ago I was reminded of the period in my early 20s when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I was a little slower than most, bottoming out of my first year of college because I had no idea what sort of career I wanted.

So I dropped out and went back to the town where I had gone to high school, a ski resort, lived by myself and worked as a motel maid and a custodian at the local Episcopal church.

There were drifters in those days — I don’t know if this is still true — who would make the circuit through Wyoming in the summer. They God, not things, at the center were homeless people who migrated with the Putting a relationship with God at the center of seasons, taking odd jobs here and there to keep our lives means holding loosely to the things of themselves in food, taking shelter where they this world. You cannot serve two masters, Jesus could find it. The church in my town used to take them in, let them sleep and shower in the basement says elsewhere in the Gospels.

You cannot love the stuff of your life and God of the rectory.

I used to hang out with them on the wide church also. You have to let go of the house, the insurance, the esteem, the position, lawn on long summer evenings the things that keep you bound, when none of us was working, and unable to serve and play gin rummy with them.

Our relationship with inflexible God, in order to follow God. They would tell stories. And, to God has a dream for each one paraphrase a song, they always God is the most of us. God wants us to put the had some mighty fine stories. important thing. Let particular talents and skills with Some were probably even true. which we were born to work for us hold all other the good of the world. Building Rootless flexibility They were for the most part possessions loosely. our relationship with God and learning to follow where God likable and interesting, a diverse leads is a journey of a lifetime. lot. One guy, Willie, played the It takes learning prayer and banjo — blue grass — and he discernment, learning to focus got gigs at one of the local bars. on God, and God alone. And that takes clearing all Another, Francis, was a house painter, and he other issues out of the way. helped me paint the parish hall.

It is risky and foolish to follow the scruffy He could take a regular four inch wide brush, homeless man who is our Messiah. He takes us dip it in paint, and create a beautiful straight edge right out of the world, right away from our bondjust by moving that brush steadily along, clear and age to things, to attitudes, to others’ expectations straight. I could never understand how he did it — he had the DTs, and his hands shook like anything. and demands of us.

Our relationship with God is the most important But when it came to painting, he was steady as a thing. Let us hold all other possessions loosely rock.

Laurie Gudim is a religious iconographer and These people were homeless, rootless — not the liturgical artist, a writer and lay preacher living in sorts of folks a parent would want her 20 year old Fort Collins, Colo. This reflection first appeared daughter hanging out with. But I have to say they in the “Speaking to the Soul” section of episcopaltaught me something important that helped me cafe.org. Reprinted by permission. v discern how I wanted to live my life.

Diocesan Calendar August 2013 2 Vocationers’ Retreat, Grace Cathedral and Bethany Place Conference Center, Topeka (through Aug. 3) 10 Bishop Kemper School for Ministry classes, Bethany Place Conference Center and Grace Cathedral (through Aug. 11) 17 Youth Commission meeting, St. Andrew’s, Emporia 20 Council of Trustees meeting, Bethany Place Conference Center, Topeka 24 Ordinations to the priesthood and diaconate, Grace Cathedral, Topeka

September 2013

6 Youth Peer Ministry fall retreat, St. Andrew’s, Emporia (through Sept. 7) 7 Southeast Convocation meeting, St. John’s, Parsons

Southwest Convocation meeting, Trinity, El Dorado

8 Bishop Wolfe at St. John’s, Wichita 10 Council of Trustees meeting, Bethany Place Conference Center, Topeka 12 Bishops Open Forum with Bishop Dean Wolfe and West Missouri Bishop Martin Field, Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kansas City, Mo. 14 Northeast Convocation meeting, Trinity, Lawrence Northwest Convocation meeting, Grace Cathedral, Topeka

Bishop Kemper School for Ministry classes, Bethany Place Conference Center and Grace Cathedral (through Sept.

15)

15 Bishop Wolfe at Trinity, Lawrence 17 Bishop Wolfe at House of Bishops meeting, Nashville, Tenn. (through Sept. 26) 21 Youth Fall Fun Fest, St. Margaret’s, Lawrence (through Sept. 22)

For more news and information, as well as calendar listings, visit the diocesan website:

www.episcopal-ks.org Follow the diocese on Facebook:

EpiscopalDioceseofKansas and Twitter:

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